Flag-shaped soft pretzels for Fourth of July

Michelle is the author of the food craft blog, Sugar Swings, where she shares many sugar-inspired treats which are sprinkled with a lot geek and pop culture. Michelle is a working pharmacist and mom of three kiddos, so when not making tr...

Homemade red, white and blue for the BBQ

Are you like me and love the soft pretzel stores in the malls? Well, no need to go out to buy them. You can whip up a batch in less than half an hour with a short list of ingredients you may already have in your pantry. Make them even more festive by tinting the dough red and blue and shaping them into flags for your Fourth of July celebration, and don't forget the "star" salt!

To make soft pretzels, you need only water, yeast, flour, sugar, salt and an egg.

To make the pretzels flag shaped, you need to separate the dough into 3 sections and tint 1 dough ball red and 1 blue. That is the part that takes the longest in this recipe.

Make sure you add some coarse sea salt to the entire flag pretzel and keep a little extra to make the "stars" on the blue section.

Directions:

Dissolve and stir the yeast in the warm water. Add the salt and sugar, and stir until combined.

Add the flour 1 cup at a time until incorporated and the dough is no longer sticky.

Separate the dough into 3 balls. Tint 1 red and 1 blue. You will need to knead the dough until the color is uniform. Sprinkle and knead in more flour if the dough is still too sticky.

Cut about 2-tablespoon-size pieces from the red and white dough, and roll them into long strips. These are the flag stripes. Add a 1-inch ball of the blue dough as the blue part of the flag. Push the flag sections together so there are no spaces between the dough colors.

Brush the tops of the flags with the egg wash.

Sprinkle salt on top, and add extra salt on the blue sections to make the "stars."

Bake for 10 minutes. Watch closely to ensure the tops do not brown too much.

Let the pretzels cool, and then serve them immediately. You can store them in the refrigerator or at room temperature, but reheat them in the oven or toaster oven before serving for the best taste and texture.